Hot Prospect

He shook his head.

“Wasn’t it on that identification thing next to your badge?” she tried.

“My ID was half a room away from you and you were upside down at the time.”

She bit her lip. “I have good eyesight.”

“Must be X-ray vision.” His expression was very guarded. “So how did you know my name?”

Zoë shrugged, shuffling the cards with more enthusiasm. “Listen, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is…oops.” She’d dropped a card again. How very strange. Just one card. And she knew before she turned it over what it would be.

Yep. Her breath caught in her throat. Two swans, hearts, flowers, a pair of tiny kissing cupids flying in the air.

“The damn two of hearts,” she muttered. This was getting ridiculous.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“The card, Jake. The card I keep pulling.” She held it up to show him the picture. “The two of hearts.”

“Fortune-telling cards?” He made a derisive snort. “You don’t believe in that junk, do you?” His tone grew more mocking. “Don’t tell me. It’s magic. That’s how you knew my name. You read it off one of your cards.”

“Don’t be absurd. I told you I saw it on your ID.” She should’ve been insulted. But she decided not to be. Okay, so he was misguided and cynical. But he would learn. She had faith. She’d dealt herself the True Love card. She’d felt the connection between them. Didn’t she feel this very minute that she could see right through him, clear to his heart?

Well, yeah, but…yikes. Even for her, this was taking a leap. He was self-righteous, he was way too honest, he had no apparent sense of humor, and he was…big. Very big.

Zoë chewed on a nail as she considered exactly what she was proposing. Nuttier than a fruitcake. Not likely to impress Jake.

But she was who she was. And Zoë Kidd was not afraid to take a risk. After all, how bad could it be? She’d expected to be going on this trip, anyway. In fact, she’d been looking forward to it. Meditation. Deep thinking. Personal growth. Surely she could do those things, make a break with the past, move on, and learn to be a better person, even if Jake was along. Even if he didn’t seem likely to be cooperative.

She sent him a quick glance. Okay, so he clearly wasn’t the meditation-and-deep-thoughts type. And he was more than a little intimidating, with that glower and the sizzle of sensuality she couldn’t ignore.

“Oh, yeah. That,” she said under her breath. “If I went along, what would I do about that?”

“What did you say?”

But she didn’t answer, still speculating on this wild idea. Could she really do this?

The eyes, the shoulders, the body that looked hard and hot in all the right places…and those lips. A girl could get lost in those lips for a long, long time. Could she not do this?

If he was intimidating, he was also yummy, no two ways about it. Yummy in a once-in-a-lifetime way. Although it seemed unlikely, he might just be her True Love. That idea made her stomach flutter again, but she squashed the fear. Maybe she wasn’t considering this as a selfish path to True Love. Maybe it was because he was on some sort of mission that she could help with.

Good for her, good for him.

She could no longer ignore the fact that her intuition was pushing her in his direction. Hard.

She mashed together every ounce of courage she could muster. “How badly do you want to go on this trip?”

“I have to go,” he said flatly. “Just name your price and I’ll buy.”

“But you only want one of my tickets.” She moved closer, waving the two of hearts. “And what will I do with the other one?”

He shrugged. “If you’ll only sell them together, then I’ll buy both and toss one.”

All in a rush, she said, “I’ll let you buy Wylie’s. But I’m keeping mine. I want to use it.”

A half smile curved his adorable lips. “You want to use it, huh?” he asked dryly. “For what?”

Zoë smiled. The True Love card felt hot against her palms as she pressed it between both hands. “If you want to go, Jake, you’ll need a partner. So I’m going with you.”

3

JAKE LAUGHED. “Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen.”

But the feisty little redhead wasn’t giving in. He could tell that by the determined look on her face. Just his luck. He needed entry into this tour group, there was only one person with an entry pass available, and she turned out to be a Grade-A flake, doing some kind of goofy acrobatics half-dressed in a sweltering, unlocked apartment, burning a boatload of candles that smelled suspiciously like marijuana, waving fortune-telling cards around, and refusing to hand over her ticket to a trip she didn’t want to make, anyway. And then there were her clothes.

Okay, at least he’d seen enough of her by now to be about ninety percent sure she wasn’t “Toni,” the object of his search. He’d checked out her feet and legs, and she didn’t match. No toe rings, no sparkly sandals, plus her feet looked a lot smaller than the ones in the picture.

He’d checked out a lot more than her feet.

He’d walked in on a truly delectable view of her frisky little bottom pointed his way, and then she’d turned around and given him a gander at her front side, which made a wet–T-shirt contest look tame. He was a guy, okay? Maybe an in-control, by-the-book guy, but still a guy. When small, round, perfectly shaped breasts were presented right in front of him, covered only by one layer of slick, wet fabric, he couldn’t look away. His mouth watered again just thinking about it.

She didn’t seem to be at all aware that her clothing—or lack thereof—was downright provocative. She did seem to be aware that he was aware, however.

Or maybe it was just the ungodly temperature in the apartment making them both so hot and bothered. He ran a hand through his hair. He had no idea what was happening here, except that it was rapidly getting out of control. All he could think about was getting his hands on her tantalizing curves.

Time to stop that right then and there. Time to get back on track.

“I’ll buy both tickets,” he announced, reaching for his checkbook. This was on his father’s tab, after all. What difference did it make how much he spent? And the sooner he disposed of this, the sooner he would be rid of Zoë Kidd.

“Oh, no, you won’t!” she shot back with enough fire to make him want to spank her. Or kiss her. Or both. “I’ll let you buy one. But you don’t get to tell me what to do with my other ticket.”

“Zoë, I—”

“Nope. Discussion over.” He started to advance on her, but she held up a hand. “Don’t think you can change my mind. If you want to go, it’s my way or the highway.”

“I hate it when people say that.” Her way or the highway. He had six or seven inches and at least fifty pounds on her and she was bossing him around. But she had the ticket.

She crossed her arms over her breasts, thankfully blocking his view for a little while, and gave him the most bullheaded look he’d ever seen in his life. Considering the family he came from, that was saying something. “Here’s the deal. We need to be at O’Hare by ten in the morning. So you’ll need to pick me up by eight, just to be sure. Rush-hour traffic, you know.” She marched back over to her desk, rooting around for a second and coming up with an envelope with a big “EJ”—Explorer’s Journey—logo on the outside. “The instructions are in here about what to pack.”

“Where exactly—” he began, but she cut him off, yanking out a sheet of paper and handing it over.

“I’ll give you the ticket and the rest of the details in the morning. Oh, and be sure to leave the gun at home. They won’t let you keep it, anyway. Bad karma.”

“It varies from state to state whether I could bring it, and since I don’t know where…” He gave her a wary look, not at all liking how this was starting to sound. Did she say karma?

This was not turning out well. There was something very screwy about Zoë Kidd. Cute, pushy and screwy. His least favorite kind of woman.

And he sure as heck didn’t want to be stuck with her all the way to wherever it was they were going. He sent her one more glance, noting that she was smiling, which was pretty frightening. Shaking his head, Jake turned to leave.